


Hope

by Haely_Potter



Series: Bending the Universe [14]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M, Gen, Mentions of Bad Wolf, Mentions of the Time War, Reunion, mentions of rose tyler - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-29
Updated: 2014-03-06
Packaged: 2018-01-02 23:13:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1062797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haely_Potter/pseuds/Haely_Potter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose Tyler is still saving him, again. Maybe this time, he can have hope of seeing her again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

”She didn’t just show me any old future!” the war Doctor shouted gleefully. “She showed me exactly the future I needed to see!”

The green eyed Doctor paused for a second. “Eh? Who did?”

“Oh, Bad Wolf girl, I could kiss you!” the war Doctor ignored the question of his oldest self.

“Sorry, did you just say Bad Wolf?” the pinstriped Doctor asked, catching up.

Just hearing the words _Bad Wolf_ filled the green eyed Doctor with hope and longing he’d buried more than three hundred years ago. Maybe this would work if she was behind this. She was, after all, the only one who’d do, quite literally, anything for him. Giving him a chance to save his people… after saving him… after helping save all of reality… Clara may have been born to save him, but Rose Tyler saved him in ways no one else ever could have.

Memories he’d so hard tried to forget because of the heart break they generated were now popping to the front of his mind. He saw her golden brown eyes flash, he smelled her shampoo, felt her hand in his, heard her laughter, tasted her lips.

But he also saw her kissing the metacrisis clone, heard her shouting his name in despair, smelled her charred flesh after an adventure gone wrong, felt the emptiness of his hand without her to hold it, tasted the blood from the lip he bit to keep from calling her name in the dead of night after waking from a nightmare.

He saw the pinstriped Doctor catch it too and saw him look at him, like looking for conformation, or, as if to make sure he hadn’t missed it, hadn’t forgotten the person who’d once meant everything to him (and still did, to tell the truth).

“So what are we going to do?” asked Clara, obviously not noticing the older Doctors’ shock. “What’s the plan?”

“The Dalek fleets are surrounding Gallifrey, firing on it constantly,” the war Doctor said.

The pinstriped Doctor jumped in. “The Sky Trench is holding, but what if the whole planet just disappeared?”

“Tiny bit of an ask,” Clara said, needing clarification.

The green eyed Doctor tuned out the explanation his two younger selves were giving.

He didn’t believe in a God. Never had. His faith had for long been logic and facts and himself. After the Time War, after meeting Rose, after Bad Wolf, it was her, his little Time Goddess, his pink and yellow human. And she didn’t let him down. Not once, not really. Dalek Caan may have taken the credit for getting Donna to the right place at the right time, but it couldn’t have flown into the Time War without some help, without someone letting it through the Time Lock, like something had let them through the Time Lock. Bad Wolf knew he couldn’t have watched Rose grow old and wither and die, so she gave him the chance to give her a happy ending which was all he wanted for any of his companions. Yes, it hurt and he missed her like one would a limb, but he’d learned to function without her. The pinstriped Doctor ran so he wouldn’t have to stop and think about the gaping hole inside. The green eyed Doctor found other things to think, other people to fill the hole, other people to miss, so he could pretend he didn’t miss her.

But now… now she had done what he hadn’t been able to do. She gave him the chance to save his people, leading him to the right conclusion. It wasn’t like Time Fissures just popped out of nowhere or he was absorbed in projections of reality that would show him what he was doing wrong. It had Rose Tyler written all over it.

His mad, time traveling wife hadn’t done it. His mad, impossible Amelia Pond with the whole universe inside her head hadn’t done it. His Impossible Girl, his Clara Oswin Oswald hadn’t done it when inside his time stream.

But Rose Tyler, his beloved Rose, had done it in that one, short moment she had had all the power of Time and Space at her beck and call. Or perhaps it had been the Moment, rather than a moment. Impossible to tell anymore. _The Time War ends_ , indeed. _I bring life_ , she’d said and saved the whole of Gallifrey, rather than just bringing back Jack.

He looked up, to the ceiling. It was a very human gesture, looking up, as if the deity was watching, but he didn’t care. He thanked Rose for this, even if he’d never say it out loud. She’d know.

He turned his attention back to the others, hearing the pinstriped Doctor tell Clara that Gallifrey would be frozen.

“Exactly,” he said, knowing he would elaborate.

“Like a painting,” the war Doctor did as the green eyed Doctor had predicted.

‘*’*’*’*’*’*’*’*’

The TARDIS had finished the calculations in one thousand and seventy-eight years and the green eyed Doctor sent the results to all the earlier TARDISes and other Doctors. But he’s the one in charge, he’s the oldest after all, and he knows exactly the universe to send Gallifrey to. A universe he didn’t particularly like but one that was just as important to him as the original one, maybe even more so, in a way.

A universe where Rose Tyler and the metacrisis clone were living the life.

He didn’t tell the others this part of the plan, though. He didn’t want anyone to have any false hope. Who knew whether or not Gallifrey would return or if the metacrisis and Rose would find it? He would be the only one to feel the crushing hope, hope of being able to go home again.

Hope of having one last day with his beloved.


	2. Lost No More

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose and the Doctor find Gallifrey, and Gallifrey finds the Doctor to the now widowed Rose.

For Gallifrey, being frozen in time was like looking into the untempered schisim. Everyone on the planet felt it. Those older than three and younger than seven couldn't take it and would go mad over several decades. Those older than ninety that hadn't seen it before, stepping out of puberty, couldn't handle it either, but their minds burn slowly, driving them insane over the next century. The feeling isn't pleasant for any Time Lord, and their inclinations of the first time they saw the untempered schisim multiply. Those inspired are more inspired than ever, those driven mad are madder than ever and those that felt like running away, would soon follow the footsteps of the Doctor to see the universe, just to run.

But no one knew this would happen when the Doctor (all thirteen of him) froze Gallifrey. And it literally was a preferable choice to total annihilation.

Being frozen felt like forever, and yet it was over in a fraction of a second.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

Gallifrey's War Council had kept contact with the Doctors as long as possible (meaning to the very moment they froze) so to them the tell tale sign that the Doctors had succeeded indeed was that there was only one line of communication open.

On the screen was the face of the tenth Doctor, but aged in a way that Time Lords didn't do. Behind him was a young looking woman, one hand reassuringly on the Doctor's shoulder.

"You did it, Doctor," the General said. "You saved Gallifrey."

"Oh, I'm not the Doctor," chuckled the old man on the screen. "I am a biological metacrisis clone. It's why I look like this, why I've decayed. This version of me only has one heart."

"Doesn't make you any less the Doctor," the young woman chided him gently over his shoulder and the General felt slightly embarrassed when the Doctor's clone turned to look at the woman with adoration and placed a hand over the one on his shoulder.

"Only for you, my dear," he answered lovingly, squeezing the hand he was holding. "But you know my time is running out, and I'd like for you to have your forever with the Doctor, as you promised us such a long time ago." He turned to look at the General again. "I am glad that Gallifrey is safe. Rebuilding will be hard, but at least you have the Eye of Harmony with you so you won't have to search of an alternate source of energy. There is one thing I ask though."

"We are all in your debt, Doctor," answered the General promptly. "Anything that we have in our power to do, you can ask."

"After my death, will you please send Rose to her original universe?" the Doctor asked, sounding tired. "I am selfish enough to want her to be here to the end of my days, but I can't ask her to stay here mourning me forever when she still has so much love to give."

"And I suppose I don't get a say in this?" asked the woman, Rose. "You're just going to decide for me like the Doctor did when he left us here?"

"And would you prefer to live here alone? With no Doctor at all?" the Doctor inquired her seriously.

"Well, no, but I'd like to be able to mourn you properly before falling to his arms, thank you very much," sniffed Rose. "And we don't know how he feels about me now or if he's regenerated or if he's married."

"He isn't, married at least," sighed the Doctor and tapped his temple. "I'd have felt a telepathic link forming for him. As he must've felt our link."

"We will do as you ask, Doctor," the General cleared his throat, drawing their attention to himself. "I assume you want the Lady Rose to be made the First Lady of your House?" he asked, having drawn several conclusions. First of which was that the Lady Rose had traveled with the wholly Time Lord Doctor and that they'd fallen in love with each other. Nothing had come out of it and the Time Lord Doctor had left the assumed human behind with a part of himself that could age like a human.

The Doctor on the screen smiled. "Indeed. I have wanted that since meeting her," he smiled, more freely than Time Lords normally did. "But there is somewhere we have to go before you can go ahead with the paperwork. We'll be there to sign it soon enough."

Then the connection was cut and the War Council of Gallifrey just breathed, not truly believing the renegade Time Lord Doctor had actually saved them. That is, until a call from High Council came in and distracted them again, demanding explanations of how and who and why and what.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

The Doctor and Rose landed the TARDIS and walked outside, hand in hand. They had landed in some sort of barn with crates and rubber wheels on the sides. The wood of the barn was light, a very light grey, and light poured in from all the cracks in the walls. In the middle of the barn was a strange box – and on the box sat a girl. A girl identical to Rose.

"So you're Rose Tyler," the girl said, her voice more breathy than Rose's. She tilted her head slightly. "I always wondered why I felt compelled to choose this form for the Doctor, rather than the woman who thought herself his wife, but I can see now. You are what his hearts ached for long before you met. Or is it after? I always get those two mixed up."

"Who are you?" asked Rose, frowning.

"The Moment has a consciousness," the girl nodded to the box she was sitting on and wiggled her fingers in a wave. "That's me, by the way. Hello. But this form is called Bad Wolf. The End of the Time War."

The Doctor nodded along with her.

"Bad Wolf?" inquired Rose.

"You know, like you when you have the Heart of the TARDIS inside you," the girl shrugged. "I'm a shadow of the real Bad Wolf, of you. You wanted the Doctor safe and happy. What better way to make him happy than right the biggest mistake of his life. So you tweaked my creation slightly, brought my consciousness to a more... human... level. Let me understand emotions and the value of life. Together Clara and I, without her knowledge of our team work, managed to convince the Doctors not to destroy Gallifrey but rather gave them the idea to freeze it instead, place it in suspended animation. All because you wanted the Doctor to be safe and happy."

Rose opened her mouth but closed it with a frown. "You're giving me too much credit for this."

"Not really," shrugged Bad Wolf and was in front of her. "You do know the Doctor wanted to die with the Time Lords. His punishment for killing them would have been living. He thought it was his punishment. It was when you met him. And he would have broken under the strain had he not met you." Her eyes flickered to the Doctor. "You know who he would have become."

"The Valeyard," he whispered with realisation.

"Oh, that regeneration warred with his emotions all the time and sometime the darkness won," Bad Wolf nodded. "It would have won much more without you," she said, looking at Rose dead in the eyes. "But you... you drove the darkness away. He wouldn't kill a Dalek when you told him not to. He saved Jack Harkness when you reminded him that the Captain would die with the bomb on his ship. You gave him something to shine from, and ever since he met you, he's been reflecting that light like a moon does to the light of the sun. And do you know what the next Doctor," she waved her hand toward the Doctor, "the one after that one, thought when he heard my name mentioned by the Warrior? He thanked you for giving him this chance, for loving him enough to no want him to be alone, to not be the last. But he also had a plan in the back of his mind, even in that moment, he knew he was going to send Gallifrey to you. And a small but determined spark of hope flared in his heart, the hope of seeing you again. It was what he latched onto when he doubted his plan to freeze Gallifrey. Because to him, the chance of seeing you was more invigorating than potentially being able to go home."

Rose stared at the woman identical to her. "How am I supposed to respond to that?" she asked, shaking her head.

"You're not," answered Bad Wolf with a shrug. "I just thought you ought to know, you know, for when you go back."

"Great, thanks," Rose grumbled. "You know, it's better for the Doctor to talk of what he feels rather than have someone else say it. No offence dear, but that's what left us here in the first place," she said, looking at the Doctor.

"I know," he nodded deliberately. "But I don't regret it."

A warm smile spread on Rose's face. "Neither do I, not really. Someone once asked me to have a fantastic life, and I have had that."

"Me too."

"Okay, I'm gonna go back into that box over there and go offline before I get cavities in my nonexistent teeth," announced Bad Wolf and disappeared in front of them.

Rose inspected the box. "This is what we came for, right?" she asked, picking it up. "It's rather small for an all-powerful weapon."

"It likes to change shape and size, rather like the TARDIS," smiled the Doctor and shuffled back into the TARDIS, Rose following him with the Moment.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

The Doctor's health deteriorated from the moment he signed the papers that made Rose officially the Lady of his house, made Rose the Lady Arkytior, official wife of the Time Lord named Doctor. It took less than a month for him to succumb to his old age, sixty-one years in a human body catching up to him. In his last moments he called both for Rose and Arkytior who, Rose found out, was his granddaughter, later called Susan.

Rose returned to Gallifrey a week after his funeral, the General welcoming her more warmly than she'd thought, glaring at the chilly members of the High Council when some of them sniffed at her with dislike.

One of the High Council members approached her though, and with a smile too.

"Hello, you must be Lady Arkytior," she said with a small bow. "It is an honor to meet the wife the Doctor chose himself. I am Romanadvoratrelundar, once again the Lady President of Gallifrey."

"Oh, Romana," Rose recognised her. "The Doctor told me you lost your position when the Time War struck?"

"I did," nodded Romana, "but after Rassilon tried to destroy all of time and space to save Gallifrey from the Daleks and the Doctor stopped him, I was once again voted for the office."

"Congratulations," Rose smiled widely. "The Doctor was always so proud of you when he talked about you. Mind you, I had to wrangle the information from him at first, but once I got the floodgates open, he wouldn't shut up about you."

The older woman blushed slightly. "Much of my better qualities were taught to me on my travels with the Doctor. I owe him much."

"Don't we all," grinned Rose.

"Indeed," cut in the General, "but may we proceed with the reason we are here at all?"

Romana nodded curtly to him and gestured for Rose to follow her. "Follow me. It'll take a while for the portal to be prepared."

Rose followed her and looked around in amazement. In the few months of peace that Gallifrey had had, they had managed to rebuild much. A lot was still to be done, of course, but the city, the Citadel, looked much better already. The burnt orange sky was clear of smoke, the Sky Trenches were repaired... buildings were standing again in the more suburban area around the Citadel. There was red grass on the ground again, even though it was still blotchy in some places. Nothing had been managed to be done about the silver trees though, and Rose mourned the fact that she couldn't see them with leaves.

She was led through spartan hallways to a room with a view of the mountains in the distance beyond the Citadel.

"The Mountains of Solitude," she said aloud, looking at them with wonder. She never thought she'd see them when the Doctor described them for the first time.

Beside her Romana nodded. "Yes. The Doctor must have truly trusted you if he spoke to you of Gallifrey after thinking he burned it."

Rose quirked her a tongue touched smile. "Well, I like to think so." She sobered up quickly though, and turned back to the mountains. "I also may only have been the first interesting human he met after the War. I don't know. He never told me about the time between the War and meeting me."

"Well, that is something he can tell you when you see him again," offered Romana for comfort.

"Yes, I suppose so," Rose forced a chuckle.

Romana looked at her, assessing. "I'm sorry," she finally said. "It must be hard for you. Your husband just died and already you are being ushered to the arms of a different man."

Rose shook her head. "No, he's the same man, always, but... I won't know this new him. I won't know his favorite food, I won't know his catch phrase, I won't know his favorite movie, I won't know how he dresses, I won't know if he gives second chances. But this time, instead of finding out together, he'll already know himself while I won't. Deep inside he'll be the same but he won't wear a leather jacket and say "Fantastic!" or wear converse and call out "Allons-y!" I know it doesn't really matter but... I knew him when he was those men... and I'll miss them."

"I never really thought how humans perceived regenerating," answered Romana honestly. "We Time Lords know who we are at the core through telepathy and this way always recognise friends after a regeneration but for humans it must be strange indeed, trying to find those common elements from that new person in front of you."

"When the Doctor regenerated in front of me, I asked if he could change back," admitted Rose, embarrassed. "He hadn't even told me regeneration was a possibility, just up he went in golden flames. And when the flames died out, there was this pretty boy bean-pole standing in front of me, going on about new teeth and Barcelona." She chuckled. "I didn't believe him when he said he was the Doctor and accused him of being a Slitheen. Then he recounted how we met to me to convince me that he was still himself. I could barely believe it. Then something went wrong with his regenration and he crashed us home for Christmas before going out cold for the next ten hours. Then, because he's the Doctor, Earth was invaded, again. He quoted the Lion King, a children's movie from Earth, to the invading species' leader and then challenged him to a duel for the planet. The Doctor won of course after having a hand lopped off and regrowing it because he was within the first fifteen hours of his regeneration cycle. After getting home, he disappeared for a while and then reappeared in his pinstriped suite and converse and Janis Joplin's coat."

While she spoke, silent tears had started streaming down her face. When she was finished, she took a shuddering breath. "I miss him. I miss him so much. I even miss how he ate jam straight from the jar with his fingers and how he wriggled out of doing the dishes."

"Once," Romana said, "when I was with him and we were in the middle of a chase, I mean, we were being chased, he turned around and pleasantly asked our pursuers if they wanted a jelly baby, offering them his paper bag full of them. They were so startled by him that they all took one. Once they had them in their mouths, the Doctor went into a lecture of safety hazards of running while having something in their mouths so that when he turned and started running again, our pursuers obediently stood still until their mouths were empty. This gave us time to get to the Doctor's TARDIS and away to the time vortex."

Rose giggled a little, slightly cheered up. "That does sound like him, confusing people into letting him get away. He did something similar in Estonia, the city on New Finland, not the country." She looked at Romana. "Thanks."

"For what?" Romana asked blankly but Rose could see the playful glint in her eyes.

She snorted. "Time Lords," she muttered and shook her head with a smile.

There was a knock on the door. "My Lady President, the portal is ready," an old looking woman announced.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

The Doctor was having a brilliant Wednesday with Clara, running from ancient mesopotamians, when TARDIS announced an oncoming transmission of the highest priority.

The Doctor, who'd been leaning against the TARDIS doors, laughing with Clara, catching their breaths, looked at the console with a frown. The only people who could make their transmissions highest priority was the Lord President of Gallifrey. Or himself, as it was. Either it was himself in need of assistance or...

No, he couldn't bear to hope.

With a shake of his head, he went to answer the transmission, turning the screen to face him. "Hello, you've reached the Eleventh Doctor and the TARDIS, how may I help you?" he asked cheerily before he registered who it was on the screen.

There was a dark haired woman, the woman who'd been crying when Rassilon had tried to destroy all of time by bringing Gallifrey back from the Time Lock. But this time she was smiling, and wearing the robes of the Lady President of Gallifrey.

"Romana..." he whispered, barely able to believe what he saw.

"My Lord Doctor," she answered formally. "I believe thanks are in order. Thank you, for saving Gallifrey. We are forever in your debt."

"But..." the Doctor hesitated. Then it clicked and his face cleared. "It worked," he whispered in awe. "It worked," he said louder. "Clara, it worked!" he shouted and started dancing around the console, doing the drunken giraffe, as Amy had named that particular move. There weren't words powerful enough to describe what he was feeling beyond the complete and utter joy at the muted but significant buzzing in the back of his mind. The buzzing that had been absent for close to four hundred years. He reveled in it, in the knowledge that he wasn't alone, that the survival of his race wasn't on his shoulders alone.

"Oh my God," a familiar voice said from the background of the call, "I have to teach him to dance all over again."

"Rose Tyler, I'll have you know, there's nothing wrong with my dancing!" called the Doctor before tripping and falling on his face.

The shock and pain clouded everything for a few seconds but when it faded, everything was clearer and he realised what he'd just said and whom he'd heard. Slowly he got up and walked to the screen, hands shaking and hearts beating as he was uncertain if he'd heard right or if getting his people back had finally made him crack.

But no, there, beside Romana, was a pink and yellow human, hair the colour of honey and eyes a warm hazel flecked with gold. She was smiling, her pink tongue peeking from behind her teeth.

"I believe you know Lady Artkytior, the first Lady of Lungbarrow," Romana said, gesturing to Rose.

The Doctor tore his eyes away from Rose. "What?"

"The metacrisis Doctor signed the paperwork a few weeks before succumbing to his age," answered Romana. "As you know, during war times, a metacrisis has equal legal rights to sign paperwork as their Time Lord counterpart. His last request was that when she was ready, we send your wife back to you. I am sending you the coordinates for the meeting place. Try not to be late, Doctor." Romana then cut the transmission.

"No, wait-" started the Doctor as the screen went blank, displaying the coordinates Romana had sent. He hit the console with a frustrated yell.

"What's the matter?" asked Clara who'd held her distance during the transmission.

"I couldn't even say "Hello" properly," muttered the Doctor angrily as he started the dematerialisation process and entering the space-time coordinates to the TARDIS. "Three hundred and fifty-eight years, two months, fourteen days, seven hours, thirty-one minutes and fifty seconds, and I can't get a bloody word out of my mouth. Great going, Doctor, she probably thinks you've lost your marbles..."

"Oh, it's about the girl," Clara tried to tease him, to lighten his mood, but he just growled at the console as he pulled levers and pushed buttons. "Come off it, Doctor," she finally chided him. "You'll see her soon."

"Not soon enough," grumbled the Doctor as they materialised on Earth's Moon in the 42nd century as per the coordinates given to them. Then, as fast as he could, he ran to the doors, yanking them open.

His breath caught in his throat. She was there, talking with Romana, hair whipping in the artificial wind. She glanced his way and stared right back at him.

Slowly, she started smiling.


End file.
